By: Bob Tomaine on 5/24/2010
Plymouth's Volare Street Kit Car appeared in 1978, a confused time for high-performance cars in the United States, which helps explain its obscurity today. Drivers by then had accepted that muscle cars' successors combined struggling, emissions-controlled engines with visuals believed to imply speed. In that atmosphere, the Street Kit Car wasn't bad.
Introduced in 1976 to replace the Valiant, the Volare--like its twin, the Dodge Aspen, which replaced the Dart--was at the time a small car. The coupe rode on a 108.5-inch wheelbase and offered a 225 slant-six or a 318 or 360 V8 with three-speed, four-speed with overdrive or Torque-Flite transmission.
The Volare Super Coupe was a performance package that used the 360 V8 and emphasized handling via better suspension, tires and wheels but included flares, spoilers and matte-black paint. Plymouth built just 494 copies, but the Street Kit Car proved even less popular. It differed from the Super Coupe mostly in cosmetics and included bolts in the flares, hood pins, chrome, windshield clips and rear-window retainers.
Street Kit Volares were available only in two-tone blue, and the 360-powered cars wore "360 cu. in.'' on each side of the hood. Large "43'' figures on the doors and the roof explain the unofficial "Petty Kit Car'' name while adding to the aggressive look Chrysler wanted. Competition, from the AMX to the Cobra II to the Hurst/Olds W30, had graphics and spoilers, but the Street Kit Car's 175 hp topped those three and gave 0-to-60-mph times in the eight-second range. It was acceptable performance in the day, so why did Chrysler sell just 247 Volares and 145 Aspens with the Street Kit Car package?
"Richard Petty stopped racing Chrysler that year,'' said owner Aaron Yurkanin of Peckville, Pennsylvania. "As soon as Richard Petty left, they said, `Stop the presses.'''
The "Kit Car'' name, with its unfortunate connotation of a fiberglass body on a used chassis, probably did little to help. Another hurdle was the Volare's growing reputation for poor quality.
The Kit Car's interior is pure Volare, and the only hint that this is anything out of the ordinary comes on rough roads. The tires and suspension stiffen the ride, but they keep the car from leaning at all in some slightly immoderate corners.
The Volare's big surprise comes in town traffic; despite the big numbers on the doors, the flares and the wide tires, hardly anyone notices. And if it's unnoticed on the road, Yurkanin has learned from showing the Street Kit Car that it really is forgotten. Even his documentation is often dismissed.
"They still don't want to believe you,'' he said. :This kid thinks he's got a factory car. He doesn't know what stock means.' It's like they're patting you on the head and saying, `Son, you'll learn someday.'''
http://www.autoweek.com/article/20100524/COLLECTOR/100529867#ixzz1UGA3knj9
~Michael
http://www.autoweek.com/article/20100524/COLLECTOR/100529867#ixzz1UGA3knj9
